The whistleblower lawsuit against voting machine company Hart InterCivic, as filed in federal court on behalf of former employee William Singer, has been withdrawn following a decision by the Supreme Court that makes pursuing the case nearly impossible, according to the law firm who originally filed the complaint.

The suit had been sealed for nearly two years as the Dept. of Justice asked for extension after extension during their decision on whether or not to join the case. Earlier this year, they ultimately decided not to join the case, as we reported last March, leaving the firm of Levin Papantonio Thomas Mitchell Echsner & Proctor, P.A to proceed on their own. The DoJ declines to join some 76% of such cases.

In the interim, while waiting for the DoJ, the case of Rockwell Intl Corp. v. U.S. [PDF] came before the U.S. Supreme Court, and the findings in that decision, as attorney Mike Papantonio told The BRAD BLOG, has "made it next to impossible to proceed with any and all federal whistleblower (qui tam) cases."

The decision found that Rockwell was required to pay millions of dollars under the federal False Claims Act to the federal government, but that the relator of the case --- the insider who blew the whistle --- was not entitled to any of that money, nor even for the millions of dollars accrued in legal costs since the amended complaint, filed with the Justice Dept., included information about which the relator did not have direct inside knowledge.

The SCOTUS finding, as expressed for the majority by Justice Antonin Scalia, may well hamstring future whistleblower cases in federal courts, according to legal experts.

"I used to think qui tam was the way to go," Papantonio told me as his firm was weighing their decision on how to proceed after the case was finally unsealed, "but now I just don't know anymore."

Papantonio's Florida law firm has used the qui tam laws successfully in the past, and has taken on giants such as the Tobacco Industry. After he and his radio partner Robert F. Kennedy Jr. had learned about Singer's case from The BRAD BLOG --- we originally reported Singer's extraordinary saga back in early 2006 --- they decided to launch the federal fraud suit on his behalf later that year.

(I was interviewed about the withdrawal of the federal case by Mike Papantonio for this weekend's Ring of Fire radio program, which he co-hosts with Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.. A video version of the interview is also posted on their GoLeft.TV site. Both versions are now posted in full at the end of this article.)

Though the attorneys working on the case have gone out of their way to express their faith in both Singer and his remarkable complaint --- detailing more than 40 federal fraud allegations, and accusing Hart of doctoring voting machines, covering up system failures, including the loss and miscounting of votes, and other malfeasance, in order to attain contracts and payment under the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) of 2002 --- the chance that millions of dollars spent pursuing the case might be unrecoverable at the end of the process, even if successful, in light of the Rockwell decision, forced them to withdraw the complaint from federal court...

For their part, in response to the original announcement of the case, Hart InterCivic had attempted to claim that Singer was a "disgruntled" employee. That, despite glowing internal performance reviews for Singer from the company itself, and the fact that Singer resigned on his own accord, following the problems he witnessed at the company and the firm's alleged lack of interest in addressing them.

When we originally reported on the unsealing of the case last March, we noted "significant legal developments, most notably from the U.S. Supreme Court, which have occurred during the time since the case was filed" that might affect the disposition of the case. This is the matter that the attorneys were mulling at the time.

While both Papantonio's firm and several other attorneys have been looking at alternate options for re-filing the Singer case in a state court, at this time there are no concrete plans to do so.

Singer himself was finally asked to testify this week before the Texas Legislature's House Committee on Elections. His opening statement, in full, is available here [RTF].

(DISCLOSURE: I was also asked by the office of the Republican chair of that committee to testify at this week's hearings as well, but was unable to do so due to previous travel commitments.)

In his written testimony, Singer points legislators to our coverage of his case and charges Hart InterCivic as being "malicious dishonesty in trying to cover up their criminal and deceptive practices by attacking me."

He excoriates election officials for a "total lack of interest, of any kind, by any officials across the entire nation, not because I assume my own opinions have any necessary value, but rather because my experiences in this field dictates that any competent election official should at least have followed up [his original, and finally well-publicized complaints here at The BRAD BLOG] to determine my credibility if not also asking for any assistance I might offer. And if my very serious complaints were ignored then I think it is reasonable to ask how many other complaints were ignored. How many other people with unusual and genuine expertise were, or are, being ignored?"

He goes on to detail "the complete lack of effective oversight for electronic voting and elections" and writes that "The whole of my 2004 complaints and lawsuit are still entirely valid and I stand by them."

In conclusion, he says:

I would like this Committee to explain to the public why a voting machine company, in Hart Intercivic, is allowed to do business in Texas despite proof that they are dishonest. They have lied about every issue in the lawsuit (such as the audit report issue, which is easily proven from official election backups) and lied about me directly on several occasions and in several ways, first claiming I was fired, then "disgruntled", then that I was a "tin-hat" and somehow in league with people who may simply fear electronic voting (though Hart employees know perfectly well that I have always supported electronic voting (just not run or supported by people who are dishonest.)) It is not difficult to demonstrate that Hart Intercivic is dishonest, but I am loss to understand why the state seeks to do business with a dishonest election vendor, of all things.
...
Hart's equipment and software cannot be legally used in any election anywhere in the United States, nor has any election run on Hart's equipment been valid.

Singer finally points out his belief that Hart's machines cannot be used legally in any election, due to the "triplicate original" ballots that Hart InterCivic cites as a sales point for their system. That design, he points out, cannot be used in any election because it requires election officials to choose between the three possibly-different election results reported by the voting system.

"If a vote was missing then you could not legally count either of the two remaining 'original' votes," Singer charges. "You cannot count votes on a Hart machine any more than you could count 3 paper votes submitted by a single person, whether such votes all agreed or not."

Unfortunately, given the recent decision by the U.S. Supreme Court, Singer's scores of such detailed allegations, made from his unique position as a voting machine company insider, may never be examined in a court of law.

In April, Papantonio spoke about the unusual delay in the unsealing of the original complaint on Ring of Fire, the weekly radio show he co-hosts with Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.. He complained, at the time, about the long delay in waiting for the DoJ to ultimately make their decision.

While I'm on the road right now and for the next week or so, with very limited online time, I'm unable to cover in much more detail for the moment. I did come out of the woods, however, where I was camping for a few short days, to tape an interview about the withdraw of the case for Papantonio/Kennedy's radio program. I was joined during the interview by Levin Papantonio's superb lead attorney on the case, Matt Schultz.

That interview, which offers more detail than I have time to cover here, will air this weekend on Air America affiliate stations and has now been posted on Papantonio/Kennedy's GoLeft.tv. They were kind enough to share it with us early so we could run it here at The BRAD BLOG. The video version of the interview follows, with the audio version posted below it (appx. 20 mins)...

All of this is a hell of a lot more that just a string of coincidences (re SCROTUS and the stalling by the DOJ), which has no other conclusion than They're quashing all evidence that the machines are rigged.

Today in Massachusetts we got more of those strange fake clouds manufactured by specific aircraft. The fakes want people to feel ashamed to even question it. But thank God for Paul Moyer, Jeff Ferrell, and Rosalind Peterson.

To quote that famous British 60's rapper Pete Townsend, "meet the new boss SAME AS THE OLD BOSS." No need to turn the off the light on the way out because global warming climate change is a hoax by environmental groups. OK to swim at the North Pole this summer, just watch out for the oil tankers. Any day now it will be proven that an Iranian micro-chip terrorist plan recovered in an Iraqi passport in front of World Trade Tower Building #7 moments before it fell in 6.5 second on 9-11 although not hit by a jet will all the direct evidence required for the bush administration to attack Iran.

In the anals of bush government, this evidence collected on 9-11 6 hours before the 47 story World Trade Tower building experienced a globlal collapse, the 1% elite illuminati represented by bush administration official and their private military force now know beyond a reasonable doubt that Iran had as much to do with 9-11 as Iraq and must be bombed into submission because they are jealous of our version of US style democracy and plan to take out the white house in October 2008. bush, cheney and all these mutherfckers in Washington are left with no other choice but to attack immediately.

geesh
the justice department refuses to do its job and the supremes make sure that a private lawyer cant get paid(or even recover his cost)even if he wins when he is trying to preserve democracy
maybe it is too late
btw cspan has the unity meeting of hill/barak on its web page but it wont play...wtf...i watch stuff on cspans web site all time so i dont think its my puter.....there have been times when peops said,obama/mccain both r evil or the "powers that be" wouldnt of let them get this far that i questioned obama but i gotta say when even cspan is censored so the public doesnt get to hear what he says,i think he is the one they r afraid of

Can't bitch to the house, they don't care
Can't bitch to the senate, they don't care
Can't bitch to the sos they don't care
Can't sue em, (Rigged) DOJ don't care
Can't reverse bad results, and de-throne the elected, (they accept power too fast, and care less about oath of office)
Can't use a civil lawsuit, cause it get's delayed or takes so long that it's made irrelevant
Can't use the Constitution, since it's been pissed on.

And finally the catch 22

Can't vote em out because of bad electronic vote tabulation devices
or
Can't vote at all because of voter roll manipulation

He swore an oath to protect the constitution, and FISA is fucking unconstitutional.

I won't vote EVER again for these corrupt oath breakers.

New Rule: YOU BREAK YOUR OATH OF OFFICE, YOU BETTER FUCKING RIG THE ELECTRONIC VOTING MACHINE!

(somewhere deep inside me I think it's going to be a violent end to this shit)

The good thing is that once someone dies, it's just over. Ya know? Like George Carlin said.. (hopefully you listened to the specific audio streaming files I linked you to)

(I am not suggesting anything here, DON'T DO ANYTHING. DO NOT BE VIOLENT. DO NOT BREAK THE LAW!!! THIS IS NOT A CALL TO ACTION!!!)

I am only telling you the thoughts inside my mind at a deep level, I am only saying that I feel like this whole corruption thing is similar to a hard core chess game and it's not going to end pretty. My MIND thinks this. We can laugh and joke along the way, but the piper will be at the end if we get checkmated.

On the one hand, I hear folks thinking out loud that elect Barack and he will turn this shit around, on the other hand, I am not going to support these fucking oath of office breakers.

I think we're now undeniably a Banana Republic, and I don't think it was an accident that the DoJ finally cut them loose, only for the Supremes to make it impossible for an attorney to get even expenses paid to represent those who would expose the corruption.

Samuel Chase (April 17, 1741 – June 19, 1811), was an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court and earlier was a signatory to the United States Declaration of Independence as a representative of Maryland. Early in life, Chase was a "firebrand" states-righter and revolutionary. For unknown reasons, perhaps just emotional maturation, his political views changed during his life and career. In the last decades of his career he became well-known as a staunch Federalist, and was impeached for allegedly letting his partisan leanings affect his court decisions. Chase was acquitted.

I'm tellin' ya. Floridiot#1, you're right. But who has ever scrutinized the entire national election process this closely before? Suppose elections have been heavily rigged since 1868 and the new technology is just now shedding light on it...anyone ever going to be able to check?

I mean, not one voting machine company can solve a fundamental programming 1 homework problem (literally) in six years?

YOU #11: You get a star for the day! That is pertaining to questioning past US election results. I believe the elite 1%ers who have been running this country for decades could have easily been putting on the election voting sham for years unchecked. Once these skull and bones figured out no one could really question a normal descrepency or stuffed ballot box, it's probably been a long standing inside joke for these criminal fcks. If there is ever a question about who the man is, the Electoral College is in place to trump any popular vote problem. Working in conjuction with organized religion and the mob at times, there would be no problems.

In order for any possibility of legal and fair elections the Electoral College MUST be abolished.
With it in place it permanently keeps the chance of viable 3rd & 4th parties all but impossible.
That is the ONLY reason it remains today.
We currently are saddled with a 99.999% corrupt Duopoly, anyone that thinks the democrats are not just as guilty in the crimes committed the past 8 years are deluding themselves.

"DON'T DO ANYTHING. DO NOT BE VIOLENT. DO NOT BREAK THE LAW!!! THIS IS NOT A CALL TO ACTION!!"

/sigh, and sadly this is the exact mantra that has been beaten into the general populace for many decades. Basically whatever happens regardless how egregious, regardless if ALL of the avenues of redress of grievances have been completely sewn up you are just supposed to lay down and do nothing.
Just go home (if you still have one)and watch the TV, go to work (if you still have a job) and make your boss richer. But whatever you do, don't do the ONLY thing that could possibly actually effect change.
The ONLY thing that is LEGALLY left for citizens to do when the Government gets so corrupt.

I realise these papers don't mean anything anymore but they were what this country was founded on and they used to mean everything.

Declaration of Independence

""That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security.""

I can assure you the founders of this country were not referring to marching around with a sign singing Kumbaya or that this altering, abolishing, & throwing off of such government was just going to magically happen if we all sit around and do nothing but ask nicely.
Sitting around doing nothing and asking nicely is what has gotten us where we are today.

We the People have been neutered with such BS Kindergarten rules for decades to the point to where we all have become utterly worthless.
Elections are blatantly stolen and 10s of millions of us KNOW this for a fact and we do nothing.
This country was attacked in a false flag attack BY OUR OWN GOVERNMENT, both sides know it, both are guilty of committing and covering up the crime and the Mainstream media is also fully aware of this attack and helped commit and cover up the crime. At LEAST 40% of this country KNOWS this for a fact, that is well in excess of 100 Million people and yet we do NOTHING.

We sit back and hope, we go out pretend to vote on machines we know are corrupt in an election we know is rigged and for candidates we know are all bought & paid for by Big Oil & the top 2%.
As if the slightly lesser of 2 insanely corrupt evils is somehow going to make a damn bit of difference.
We have all lost our collective minds.

"DON’T DO ANYTHING. DO NOT BE VIOLENT. DO NOT BREAK THE LAW!!! THIS IS NOT A CALL TO ACTION!!"

Yep, this is exactly what we are going to do, NOTHING and we deserve exactly what we got coming because of it.

#11 & #12, I've been thinking the same thing recently, that the elections have ALWAYS had a degree of corruption if not outright rigging. Concerned citizens are just now able to communicate in near real time, that's why we're catching it more.

#13, I feel your frustration and am glad somebody else posts the DoI in order to remind other citizens of their duty. I partly agree with your statement:

We the People have been neutered with such BS Kindergarten rules for decades to the point to where we all have become utterly worthless.

The main rules that came to mind when I read that were the rules regarding the Prohibition of Cannabis. With that BS and unconstituional prohibition, the government literally is infringing on the citizens' "cognitive liberty": their right to think and affect their own consciousness how they deem appropriate. All other rights are downstream from this fundamental, right to one's own consciousness. When I think about cannabis prohibition, and how the government took the most useful and non-toxic plant on the planet, and conjured up the fraud that it was the most dangerous, in order to reap immense profits for their corporate benefactors, while simultaneously creating the largest prison population on earth and effectively continuing the Pharmacratic Inquisition, and then maintaining this fraud for over 70 YEARS!, even with millions of people knowing that's it a fraud, hell, 9/11 seems easier to pull off in comparison.

But we're not all useless. Millions of citizens everyday, BREAK THE LAW, regarding cannabis prohibition, and bless them for it.

The circle has not reached the 6 O'Clock position yet. This circle in other terms, revolution.

Now onto my comments.

I do believe, those with the ability to listen and make the needed changes we are growing to demand, will not slink away from the current masters until we place into their collective desires and lay it all down for them to finally understand this fact, they will be on the defendants bench when the trial finaly gets underway, and the charges are capital crimes.

Make that call and just remind YOUR REPRESENTATIVEs and be the nice friendly guy. Tell them they had better turn to the side of the peoples witness or be a defendant for capital crime(s) and treason(s).

That said, how to fix this organized crime infested representation we have.

"Writ of mandamus" against all law enforcement and the courts themselves to honor the Ninth Article to the Bill of Rights that states,

"The enumeration in the constitution (Intoxicating Liquors) of certain rights, SHAL NOT BE construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people."

The intoxicating powders, leafs, etc., are all protected rights of the people because organized crime thought intoxicating drink was worth enumerating into the constitution with the 18th and then the repair of that error with the 21st amendment.

But it is time to gain back that control of YOUR OWN PAINS from the DEA's computer database. Imagine a reasonable man giving another the ability to tell the first how much pain they must endure,,, "you better be nice to me or you are gonna be in serious pain. Pay up sucker. Where's my tip?".

In the early 1980's, a gram of tampered with cocaine was selling for about $120.00 per gram, at the same time, the pharmacutical grade of cocaine was selling for TWO PENNIES for a gram, UnTampered for 2 American fake chips of copper (fake copper at that).

Can you see the motive for organized crime families to keep the bush (just an example clan) clan in power. The fruity loop once said, "I'm out of the loop", to a question of what he knew about the Iran/Contra drug deals. Turns out he was the loop.

Big money can buy a lot of programming and voting machines, it's a slam dunk.

Hence, the only way to FIX all these problems, is with Liberty of the people by the people and for the people. If there is some minor conflict of whether or not something is a crime or legal, the people decide for liberty every time, organized crime goes for state domination every time. If you are not getting the hint, your government IS organized crime.

It all starts with the demands for a luxurious life style, by criminals that place their friends into political positions. Do you think this is a new idea the mexican mafia has come up with by putting their street thugs into the military etc.!

Wakey up folks. Ending prohibition(s) is the only method you have to put a serious dent into the plans of these criminal chickenhawk thugs. And you do this with what hs been enumerated into the constitution, or have you bought into the contract on all americans.

The Rockwell decision appears to say first-hand direct knowledge is essential for the collection of any reimbursement for bringing the case. I thought that is what Singer had. If he attached all sorts of inferences and speculation to what he knows or knew, that would be reason enough to ditch the case---but I am not getting that from Brad's reporting.

If the DOJ had decided to join the case, the Rockwell decision seems to say it is possible the litigation could be amended, and the SCOTUS then says an amended case runs the risk of cutting out the whistle-blower (and his attornies) if for some reason the amended complaint depends on something other than (or does not depend completely upon) the whistle-blower's firsthand knowledge. And if DOJ does not choose to join the case, then the whistle-blower's attornies alone run the risk of not being paid should they lose it. (This suggests the attornies really think adding the DOJ is extremely helpful to their chances--but given the current DOJ , I have my doubts about that.)

So the whistle-blower (as in Rockwell) has to be exactly right about his allegations and has to have personally witnessed the offending conduct himself, or have in his possession the physical evidence. Otherwise, no attorney is going to attempt a suit. Gotta have the smoking gun.

I suppose the legal framing of this entire issue is "product liability". A defective product. False advertising. Bad faith contract. I don't exactly know whether "harming the democracy" counts for anything in this case.

I don't think you are. By the nature of these cases, stuff the government should be prosecuting but isn't, in order to proceed with them privately, you have to give the DoJ the chance to do it themselves first. It's not optional. And you can't go shooting your mouth off about it until the DoJ has decided whether or not to take it themselves.

Even though I haven't read the decision yet, it seems to me the SCOTUS has made a fascist ruling, here, saying the government will decide which corporate felons they will prosecute and which they will protect, and private citizens, whistle-blowers or the rest of us, including the attorneys who want to litigate this stuff when the government won't, can just suck eggs. They don't care whether we know they're protecting election fraudsters. What are we gonna do about it? If we can't nail them in court, and we can't vote them out because they control the outcome of all our votes, all we can do is revolt. Then they can throw us in the slammer....

Doesn't matter how rich the attorneys are who represent whistle-blowers, if there's no payday at the end, even just for costs, they're not going to spend the millions it would take to get this stuff adjudicated... mostly they can't.

It all boils down to one thing, the Goverment isnt ours and continues each and every day, as a traitorous one. People have to understand there is a need to stop the bleeding and its our right to rise up. Peaceful protest mean nothing, These people who we elected and depend on havent cared for a very long time, knowing we are whimps and will do nothing. Violence I am afraid as our founding Fathers said, is the only thing these people understand. That is an opinion but the only way out. Otherwise, every single person that writes here, is wasting their time blah blah blah...no action all talk.

It is time brothers and sisters for a revolution. We all know it . Do not pay taxes...stop spending your money on anything but absolute necessities. I still like the idea of a symbolic Boston tea Party with Willie Nelson and the band. No taxation without representation. Our Democratic pres. nominee , despite being a constitutional scholar , does not think it is necessary to vote against the new FISA law. Our elected officials no longer listen to us. The courts are a joke...only for the wealthy and corporations. What are we waiting for?

Actually, you're analysis is pretty good. You paid close attention. So now I can offer a few more details that I didn't put into the story (since time was short when I wrote it, the story was already getting long, and the additional explanation was complicated and nuanced).

I'm not an attorney, of course, but my understanding from speaking with those involved with the case, is that there was concern that the Rockwell case was exceedingly limited in that, for example, if the discovery process showed that versions of the system that Singer had worked with and blown the whistle on had since been updated, the complaint might need to be amended to deal with the newer systems if they still contained the same flaws as reported by Singer.

But getting that info via the discovery process even, might not be considered "original source" under Rockwell. So you can see how limiting the ruling is/could be. And the worst thing, is that one wouldn't find out until the case was appealed on the basis of Rockwell.

The attorneys might spend years and millions and millions of dollars on the case, win every complaint, and only after appear 3 or 4 years down the road find out that the money the plaintiff (relator) was awarded will go to the government and not to either the relator or even to the attorneys to cover their fees.

It's a very very bad situation as far as I can tell. Fortunately, the decisions doesn't apply, as far as I know, to state qui tam cases, so that might be a route still available to whistleblowers like Singer, depending on the particular state.

Sen. Grassley (R-IA) has been trying to get the "False Claims Act" amended to prevent this sort of thing. He's been a voice in the wilderness on this and other "good government" issues, so I sent him the following letter:

Dear Senator Grassley,

Even though I know you can't respond to my message because I'm not a "constituent", I still feel the need to write you to thank you for standing up for the ordinary U.S. citizen time and again. I saw you on CSPAN calling out for a real investigation of the DOD no-bid contracts that stink to high heavens of war profiteering and massive administration corruption, and similar contracts by FEMA and the FAA. I think the only reason the Dems refuse to follow you down that path was that they knew such an investigation would inevitably lead to overwhelming grounds for impeachment of Bush/Cheney, and they are absolutely fixed in thinking the American public won't follow them there, despite all evidence to the contrary.

Under this administration, no matter what the extent of the blatent corruption uncovered in a federal agency, no-one, especially not the agency heads, are ever held accountable. The concept of "heads rolling" doesn't exist.

Thank you also for trying to protect the people by limiting the federal False Claims Act to exempt whistleblowers whose evidence instigates an investigation against corporate wrongdoers, but whose cases must be shored up by inclusion of some material in the public domain. Sometimes the passage of time a case takes working its way through the courts means that the specifics of the situation have changed enough that the case must be amended to include public material. This is what happened to the case William Singer started, as "relator", against Hart InterCivic, a sleazy provider of election machines. Now his lawyers have had to drop it because they won't be able to recover the millions of dollars in costs for a case crucial to protecting Americans' right to fair and secure elections.

To be honest, until I saw what you've been trying to do for us, I thought "Republican" and "honest" were contradictions. Now I know that the shining light for accountability and conscientious government in the U.S. Senate is a Republican. Though it might seem to you sometimes that you're tilting at windmills, and that your fellow Senators have long stopped hearing you and only wish you'd stop running your mouth, I can tell you that the people thank you and only wish there were 99 more like you.

Again, thank you,
(Me)

I discovered his efforts on this when I ran across complaints online line by various industry lobbying groups. Let's try to get his bill ressurected in the next Congress.